Frequent Bowel Movements

One of the biggest symptoms of colitis and also probably the worst, are the frequent bowel movements. At one point I remember having over 25 a day which when I look back on it is a staggering amount of times to shit in a day! The other thing is that they often happen more at night than in the day, or at least this was the case for me, which just leaves you even more exhausted than you were already from all the frequent bowel movements. When your food is moving though you that fast you start to lose a lot of weight quickly, and you really need to get to a doctor, because although Colitis symptoms can be controlled naturally, if it gets really out of control it can be life threatening in extreme cases if a toxic megacolon develops. If things are bad it’s best to go see the doc and get some steroids if needed just to get back to normal again as quickly as possible.

Colitis means Inflammation of the Colon. The cause is not really known but it is thought to be an autoimmune disease. It causes inflammation of the lining of the colon. When the inflammation becomes bad or continues for a long period of time you get really frequent bowel movements- can be 20 times a day, and painful cramping. The cells that make up the lining of the colon can die and ulcers can then form in the colon which causes bleeding which you then discover as blood in your stools or when you wipe. Generally Ulcerative Colitis can be kept under control and there will be no obvious symptoms, but people tend to have regular ‘Flare Ups’ where the symptoms suddenly return. Other symptoms of colitis are tiredness and weight loss which is caused by all the frequent bowel movements meaning you don’t absorb as much from your food. It can be extremely debilitating and when you are having a flare up you really need to rest. It can often be a difficult condition to discuss due to the nature ot the symptoms, but support from family and friends is important especially when you are having a flare up. Colitis is a serious condition and if it gets really bad you may end up in Hospital, as I did once. The worst case scenario is surgical removal of the colon, but in most cases this should not be necessary. The best thing to do if you are diagnosed with colitis is to get things under control and then keep them that way through diet and probiotics.

Inflammation is the underlying cause of Colitis. Colitis literally means Inflammation of the Colon. The chances are that if you have Colitis you will also have other signs of inflammation in the body as a whole such as skin rashes and joint pains. What is going on is that your body’s immune system has got out of control and is working to hard – it’s forgotten when to take a break! And it starts attacking your body by mistake. The main place this is happening if you have Colitis is in your colon, but there may be signs of inflammation elsewhere in the body as well.

If you have colitis you need to work on reducing your inflammation levels which are measured by doctors through a blood test for C-Reactive Protein. There are several ways we can reduce our inflammation such as taking Omega 3 Fish Oils. If you’d like to know more sign up for my free report in the side bar on the right.

Did you know there are more bacteria in your intestinal tract that there are cells in your body?

Benefits of Probiotics -

• They reduce diarrhea
• They are anti-inflammatory
• They Manufacture B complex vitamins
• They help regulate bowel movements
• They create lactic acid that balances intestinal pH levels

There are many other benefits from Probiotic’s but these are the main ones we are concerned with in Colitis. Probiotics really work by reducing your diarrhea and lowering inflammation levels in the bowel. When I first took the right type of Probiotics in the right quantity I was amazed at the results, they really improved my stool consistency back to normal in a matter of days.

This is the first Probiotic I tried and I was surprised at how well it worked -
Primal Defense Ultra Probiotics For Colitis

Anyone who has Ulcerative Colitis knows in spite of what the Doctors tell us that Diet has an effect on our symptoms. Eating certain types of foods can make symptoms worse and may even trigger a full blown flare up. I’ve done lots of reading about Ulcerative Colitis Diets, and have  tried many different forms of eating in order to cure my Ulcerative Colitis. The best type of diet I have found  for Colitis(Colitus) is to eat like a cave man, known as a Plaeolithic Diet. This involves eating the same way as our hunter gatherer ancestors did. We evolved and thrived as humans over millions of years being hunter gatherers, and it is only in the last 10,000 years that our diet has changed.

Benefits of a Paleolithic Diet for Ulcerative Colitis -

• It is how you are designed to eat, perfected over millions of years of evolution.

• It is highly nutritious and covers all major dietary components.

• A Paleo diet has been shown to be an anti-inflammatory diet.

• Autoimmune disease (Ulcerative Colitis) patients have shown much improvement in symptoms when they eat a Paleo diet.

• Your weight will naturally normalize to a healthy level for you.

• Insulin response is improved rapidly and so you don’t get energy dips and mood swings during the day.

• It makes you feel great! Mood is improved and Energy levels are more even.

So how do you eat like a Cave Man? Its remarkably easy to do in fact you still eat most of what you would normally with a few exceptions. So you can eat anything except – Refined Sugar, Dairy Products, Grains, Beans and Potatoes. When I eating a Paleo Diet it helped my symptoms a great deal, especially with things like abdominal cramps, bloating and bad flatulence. I was also please to see an improvement in what had been frequent bowel movements – down to once or twice a day with well formed stools. With Ulcerative Coltis it is also worth changing the diet slightly to also avoid tomatoes and peppers. There is an excellent book on this way of eating which has a good section in it about Ulcerative Colitis and diet which I found very helpful called The Protein Power Life Plan. Its a weird title but the book had good info in it.

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One of the weirdest things that happened when I first had Ulcerative Colitis/Colitus was that a food that I had previously loved eating became about the most painful thing I have ever consumed. It was Potatoes, in my first ever flare up just the tiniest piece of roast potato would have me in absolute agony! Which was quite upsetting because as I said I used to love Potatoes, especially roast potatoes.

So why is it that potatoes caused me so much pain? and in fact still do cause me Colitis problems to this day. well according to Paleo diet principles you shouldn’t eat them anyway and this is because they apparently have some chemicals in them which can increase intestinal permeability, or Leaky Gut Syndrome as it is more commonly known.

If you have colitis you basically have a leaky gut in to the bargain, so thats why potatoes may not be one of the best foods if you have Colitus.

I have a wonderful recipe for Chicken Stock Soup which I find really soothes my Colitis. It’s very nutritious and great if you’re having a Flare up as it is easy to digest and doesn’t cause any abdominal pain.

The recipe is as follows -

Get one Free Range or Organic Chicken a big one, Roast it and have for dinner but don’t eat all the meat.

Once you’ve had your dinner put it in a big pot with enough water to just cover it and bring it up to boiling point. Then turn the heat down to a simmer.

Next add 2 peeled and chopped Onions, 3 cloves of Garlic, a tablespoon of Sea Salt, 3 Courgettes, 4 Carrots, and few sticks of celery.

Leave the whole lot to simmer for 3-4 hours or longer if you like.

Next take out the vegetables and put in a separate bowl with the liquid. Then separate the remaining meat from the carcas and put it with the veg and liquid stock. Now take your veg, stock,  meat and add some parsley  and blend it all up to  a nice smooth consistency and voila! you have chicken stock soup. Its delicious and also very good for you.

I have been able to have this even in the midst of my worst flare up – its a great way of getting much needed nutrition when you need it most.

Meals That Heal Inflammation

One of the first alternative ideas I tried out when I got out of hospital apart from improving my Diet was Probiotics, there have been some proper clinical studies done in to how these can help ease Colitis Symptoms and  induce remission, the research is really very exciting. There was one study I read about that used just probiotics – very strong ones and lots of them to induce remission in patients with a flare up and they worked ! There is also a study in which one brand of probiotic was used to maintain remission and worked as well as the drug Mesalazine. There’s lots of different types of probiotic such as Acidophillus and Bifidobacteria, and there are loads of different products out there, so its difficult to choose which one to use. I found out the brand which was used in several clinical trials with good results – because that seemed to be the best – and ordered some. Well the results were brilliant, I was on the mend from my big flare up of Ulcerative Colitis(Colitus) but I was still pooing 3-4 times a day and things were still pretty loose. Within 2 days of starting the probiotics my stools were suddenly well formed – like normal poo and the frequency went down to 1-2 times a day ! Wow – I was amazed and very pleased to have found something that wasn’t a drug that was helping to make my Colitis go away. In fact my only other flare up since happened at a time just after I stopped taking probiotics. Probiotics work to rebuild the good bacteria in your guts, which in Colitis are often struggling against the bad bacteria. They also have an anti-inflammatory effect which is really good because after all Colitis is literally inflammation of the colon. Another benefit is that Probiotics help to heal a leaky gut which could be one of the causes behind Ulcerative Colitis. I just can’t understand why these Probiotics aren’t being prescribed by Doctors because they really Do WORK ! The best Probiotic for Ulcerative Colitis sufferers and the one I still use today is called VSL-3, it has over 450 billion bacteria per dose and has the following strains of probiotic in it – Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus paracasei, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp Bulgaricus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Bifidobacteria breve, Bifidobacteria longum, Bifidobacteria infantis. It really is the best one avaliable and has been tested several times in proper clinical trials and has proved to be very effective. I take a sachet every day and I can’t recommend it highly enough, find out more about VSL-3 click here and then click the probiotics link on the left had side. If you want to read more there is also an excellent book on Probiotics and Ulcerative Colitis here.

After my first Colitis flare up I was left weak and unable to even walk up stairs. I had drop foot which meant whenever I went for a walk I was likely to keep falling over, so I needed to find a way to get exercise which wasn’t to hard, would build me up and wouldn’t cause me to damage my self in any other way. Basically I needed exercise that wasn’t like normal forms of exercise. Prior to my illness I used to go to Tai Chi classes, which I really enjoyed. Although I was really too weak to do Tai Chi, there is an exercise that I had learned in Tai Chi called Zhan Zhuang which is pronounced Jam Jong in English. It is best described in simple terms as Standing Exercise, that’s right an exercise that only involves standing still!. In china it is used as a method to heal the weak and sick, but it is also far more that that. Zhan Zhuang is a form of Chi Kung (Qi Gong), which actually forms the basis of many Martial Arts, often in China Marial Arts students are taught Standing Exercise before learning any kicks or punches ! It really is a unique form of exercise and has many benefits, it helps to build up muscles and tendons, improves balance and coordination, builds up your Chi energy, exercises the Heart and also has a meditative element which calms the mind. It  is an amazing form of exercise, which has really really helped me in so many ways. If you want to learn this form of Chi Kung and I would strongly recommend that you do there is an excellent book on the subject for beginners called The Way of Energy.

Finally after nearly four weeks in Hopital I was home, which was wonderful. I was looking forward to improving my diet and building my self up again. I was also keen to get started on research as to what had caused my Ulcerative Colitis. There was one initial problem, having been in a Hospital for 4 weeks in bed and being quite weak I was shocked to discover when I needed the loo and had to go upstairs that I couldn’t actually walk up stairs anymore ! My legs were so weak that I literally couldn’t lift up my feet to climb the stairs – I had to crawl ! Also my right foot was droopy – I was unable to lift my toes up. So the next day I went out for a walk to try to begin to build myself up again, and I fell over flat on my face. It was the foot that caused me to trip over and it also meant I couldn’t drive anywhere. I thought it was just lack of use causing it but I later discovered that the foot problem was in fact Toxic nerve damage caused by Ciclosporin. Fortunately I saw a very good osteopath who helped to get it moving and I was lucky that when the doctors found out they stopped the cyclosporin and it started to improve some more. Eventually it recovered but it took another month and half before my foot was fully functioning again, I was lucky that kind of thing can be permanent.